N.Va. Hit With Cost of School Migration
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Hundreds of foreign-born families have pulled their children from Prince William County public schools and enrolled them in nearby Fairfax County, Arlington County and Alexandria since the start of the school year, imposing a new financial burden on those inner suburbs in a time of lean budgets.
The school-to-school migration within Northern Virginia started just as Prince William began implementing rules to deny some services to illegal immigrants and require police to check the immigration status of crime suspects thought to be in the country illegally.
Opponents of the rules say they have had a chilling effect on Prince William’s once-thriving Latino community, prompting even legal immigrants to flee a hostile environment. Supporters say the rules have done what they were supposed to by primarily pushing illegal immigrants out.
“The resolution is clearly working,” said Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large), chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. “It is driving down the non-English-speaking portion of the schools and saving us millions of dollars. They’re going to other jurisdictions and costing them money.”
Stewart called those jurisdictions “sanctuary” cities and counties, saying illegal immigrants are welcome there. He added: “There is going to be pressure to enact similar resolutions in those neighboring cities and counties.” Officials from those jurisdictions reject that assertion.
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According to the Prince William school system, enrollment in the English for speakers of other languages, or ESOL, program dropped by 759 between September and March 31. It was the first known instance of a decline in ESOL students, said Irene Cromer, a schools spokeswoman.
During that period, 623 ESOL students from Prince William enrolled in Fairfax schools, compared with 241 in the same period the previous year. Eighty-three enrolled in Arlington, and 75 signed up in Alexandria, the latter up from 10.
Twenty-three ESOL students from Prince William enrolled in Loudoun County, officials there said.
School officials in Fairfax and Arlington said the new students are scattered across a number of schools, minimizing their effect on programs and budgets. In Fairfax, for example, a net increase of about 400 students isn’t so dramatic when measured against the county’s overall ESOL population of more than 21,000 students.
{snip}
Still, Stewart noted that Prince William’s schools expect to save $6 million in education costs as a result of the exodus—a cost that will be borne by the other communities. Some officials in Fairfax and elsewhere say they expect the numbers to climb in the next academic year.
{snip}
Local leaders outside Prince William rejected Stewart’s assertion that the exodus will increase political pressure to crack down on illegal immigrants. Fairfax leaders recently increased funding for the Enhanced Code Enforcement Strike Team, intended to combat property blight and crowding, which some residents have blamed on immigrants. Leaders have been careful to “focus on behavior and not demonize categories of people,” said Gerald E. Connolly (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
{snip}
“The majority of our families here were mixed-status families,” said Nancy Lyall, a volunteer with Mexicans Without Borders. “You’re forcing the legal residents to leave the county as well. And, of course, many of the children are legal as well, and they’re being forced to leave, too.”
{snip}
(Posted on April 28, 2008)
Comments
Their ultimate goal is to move into white neighborhoods and have their children attend white schools.
White people are running out of places to hide.
Posted by Dennis at 5:23 PM on April 28
When I was in high school, an English teacher made the distinction between raising and rearing. You raise livestock. You rear children. There’s a distinction between the passiveness of raising livestock and the active parenting involved in teaching and rearing children.
I always think of that when I see the word migration applied to people. When I think of migration, I imagine herds of animals mindlessly driven by instinct. Opposed to this are the human related terms such as emigrant and immigrant. The latter two refer to humans making conscious choices.
While migrant is a valid word, I question the use of migration as applied to people.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 5:44 PM on April 28
“Officials from those jurisdictions reject that assertion.”
They likely do, but their voters in a few years may not.
Posted by Michael C. Scot at 7:26 PM on April 28
“The majority of our families here were mixed-status families,” said Nancy Lyall, a volunteer with Mexicans Without Borders. “You’re forcing the legal residents to leave the county as well. And, of course, many of the children are legal as well, and they’re being forced to leave, too.”
Nancy Lyall gets the award for lying propagandist of the year. Ms. Lyall, nobody is forcing anyone to move (I wish it were true, however). Illegals are leaving because, as criminals, they are fleeing the law.
Posted by Mark Davidson at 8:01 PM on April 28
With respect to costs of schooling associated with illegal immigration —- a U. S. Congressional Budget Office study, “The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on Budgets of State and Local Governments,”** December, 2007, is helpful:
*”Analyses from several states indicate the cost of educating students who did not speak English fluently were 20 percent to 40 percent higher than the costs incurred for native-born students.” (page 2)
*”Current estimates indicate that about 2 million school-age children (5 to 17 years old) in the United States are unauthorized immigrants; an additional 3 million children are U. S. citizens born to unauthorized immigrants. According to the most recent population data released by the Census Bureau, as of July 2006, there were 53.3 million school-age children in the United States.” (pages 7-8).
Thus, ten percent of U. S. public school enrollment is a direct result of illegal immigration.
Simple math: 5 million students (who would otherwise not be here) x $10,000 (average annual per-pupil expenditure) = $50 billion in annual costs.
This estimate is low. It does not include added costs of educating students who do not speak fluent English, nor additional capital expenditures required (school construction, debt service) which typically adds 15% to total costs.
**CBO study: “The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on Budgets of State and Local Governments”
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/87xx/doc8711/12-6-Immigration.pdf
Posted by at 8:13 PM on April 28
“Stewart called those jurisdictions “sanctuary” cities and counties, saying illegal immigrants are welcome there. He added: “There is going to be pressure to enact similar resolutions in those neighboring cities and counties.” Officials from those jurisdictions reject that assertion.”
Don’t believe they’ll have to apply the same control, eh? Well, good for them. That’s the attitude to take.
They’re going to stick by their guns until they go broke and degenerate into a third world slum. Now that’s the kind of intelligent dedication I admire.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.
Posted by Robert Kelly at 9:03 PM on April 28
“You’re forcing legal residents to leave the county as well. And of course many of the children are legal as well, and they’re being forced to leave, too.”—Nancy Lyall So what is the point?
When the law gets hot a band of Gypsies running driveway paving and home improvement scams, they have to pack up, children and all, and leave the county under the cover of darkness. Where are your alligator tears for the Gypsy niños y niñas Ms. Lyall?
Posted by at 10:33 AM on April 29
“You’re forcing legal residents to leave the county as well. And of course many of the children are legal as well, and they’re being forced to leave, too.”—Nancy Lyall
> The automatic born on US soil rule for citizenship for children of illegals must be addressed.
Posted by Whiteplight at 2:46 PM on April 29
“There is going to be pressure to enact similar resolutions in those neighboring cities and counties.” Officials from those jurisdictions reject that assertion.”
- It never ceases to amaze how many wrong-thinking, deliberately perverse elected officials we are finding running American communities. The first responsibility of local school administrators, councilmen, aldermen, mayors, is to protect and preserve the safety, interests, and quality of life of the public that elects them and pays them, NOT to endlessly interfere with their will on behalf of hordes of felons.
It’s clear that such officials speak only for the private business interests in their community who profit from illegals at the expense of local taxpayers and public social services.
Statements and attitudes like this coming from any public official amount to conspiracy to violate the law and should be immediate grounds for impeachment from office and criminal indictment.
Posted by Gary at 2:58 PM on April 29
“The majority of our families here were mixed-status families,” said Nancy Lyall, a volunteer with Mexicans Without Borders. “You’re forcing the legal residents to leave the county as well. And, of course, many of the children are legal as well, and they’re being forced to leave, too.”
One word: ADIOS!!
Posted by at 2:19 PM on April 30